The Changing Face of Media: Blockbuster to Close US Stores

In this day and age, a lot of us can agree that now, more than ever, people love their movies and their TV shows. Simply put, people love to be entertained. In that same vein, we must acknowledge the fact that the ways in which we get a hold of such entertainment is rapidly (and forever) changing.

And on that note, if your nostalgia includes memories of quick runs to the nearby Blockbuster for a movie, I regret to inform you that as of today, Blockbuster announced that it will be closing over 300 of its remaining US stores. The very last store will be folding up by January and its Blockbuster-By-Mail service will see its end by mid-December.

Easy. You Netflix-binge. Too soon?

This is what CEO Joseph P. Clayton had to say on the matter:

“Despite our closing of the physical distribution elements of the business, we continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand, and we expect to leverage that brand as we continue to expand our digital offerings.”

Though Blockbuster will be maintaining its streaming and on-demand services for now, I can’t help but express some amount of sadness at such news. Granted, I developed somewhat of a love/hate relationship with the store based on some of its questionable censorship practices. But, for a long time, Blockbuster was my choice for movie and video game rentals for years.

Until the rise of the services like the venerable Redbox and online streaming giant Netflix, of course.

Well…life goes on?

Such services can basically be credited with the downfall of the once mighty Blockbuster. With their rise, we also saw the rise of competition in the rental/online rental business, especially with services like Hulu Plus and Amazon. So, by the time Blockbuster finally came around to the online change, it was too late.

Regardless, it had a nice little run. I mean, I would hardly call being around for almost thirty years (1985-2013) a failure.